Friday, February 28, 2014

The Face of Christ: No Movie Star Good Looks?

The new
movie Son of Godis out.
Like most other movies on this subject, Jesus is an impossibly handsome white
man—the opposite of what the real Jesus likely looked like over 2,000
years ago.

In the most recent cinematic version, by the
husband-and-wife team of Roma Downey and Mark Burnett of History Channel’s The
Bible fame, Jesus is what a Toronto Star movie critic calls a “chill” messiah,
with “great hair, a perfect pearly smile” and a “laid back bearing.”

It reminded me of a column I wrote back in 2009
about forensic research into what a typical Palestinian man in Jesus’ era might
have looked like. Spoiler alert: He doesn’t look the Jesus in the movie Son of
God.

When you think of Jesus, do you imagine him as a
muscled biker, with the word “father” tattooed on his bulging bicep?

How about as a sweat-glistened boxer, leaning on
the ropes after a successful fight?

Through his “Art for God” series, Sawyer wants
to “reflect the life and teachings of Jesus in the 21st Century.”

Of course, nobody knows what Jesus looked liked.
But we can be pretty sure he didn’t look like the Jesus in Sawyer’s paintings—a
fair-skinned white Anglo-Saxon with an angular face, long, brown hair and movie
star good looks.

Sawyer’s rendition of Jesus hearkens back
to Warner Sallman’s Head of Christ, the
famous picture of a handsome fair-skinned Jesus with the upturned gaze and long
flowing hair.

Sallman's Head of Christ.

Created by Sallman in 1924, the rendition went
on to become the best-known representation of Jesus throughout much of the last
century, gracing many a North American living room.

When many people today think of Christ, it is
that painting that comes to mind.

Both Sawyer and Sallman have it wrong—as do the makers of the new
movie the Son of God.

In 2002, forensic scientists created a model of
what Jesus could have looked like, based on ancient skulls from the region near
Jerusalem where Jesus lived and preached.

Using specialized computer programs, they came
up with a model of a typical Jewish man of Jesus’ era. For eye and
hair colour, they used drawings found at various first-century archeological
sites.

"It's not the face of
Jesus, but how he is likely to have looked given the scientific information
we've got," said Lorraine Heggessey of the BBC. "That's what people
from that area of the world looked like at that time."

In fact, the image of Jesus has been a rather
fluid thing over the centuries, reflecting the political, cultural and other
realities and imaginings of various times and places.

He was been portrayed as
emperor and ruler by the ancient Romans and Byzantines, and as a clown and
counter-culture figure in the musicals Godspell and Jesus Christ
Superstar.

The Black Jesus.

African-Americans also have their own image of Jesus, and he's also been portrayed as a revolutionary or a liberator, freeing the oppressed.

The Che Guevera Jesus.

“There is a Christ for
every age," says Neil MacGregor art historian and director of the Great
Britain’s National Gallery.

For series presenter
Jeremy Bowen, the computer-generated image of Christ should look familiar to
anyone who has travelled in Palestine or Israel.

"He was a Middle Eastern
Jew. If you go to Jerusalem today, a lot of people look like that."